Fear and Anger Love and Comfort
by ADA-MRS. DIANA PRINCE
Summary: This is a tag to Minimal Loss. Emily deals with the aftermath of her experience on Cyrus's compound with the help of her girlfriend. JJ/Emily friendship. Established Emily/unnamed non-cannon female character romantic relationship. This story will be 2 chapters.


Emily slipped her phone from her desk into her palm and made her way to a quiet corner of the office in the empty conference room. She stared down at the unlocked screen, hip planted against the table, number pulled up, ready to place the call for a long while before she let out a long sigh through her nose. JJ had noticed Emily get up from her desk and she softly followed her friend, stopping in the doorway not wanting to intrude if she was already on the phone; she was worried about her after this case and just felt the need to watch after her. She couldn't help it; she'd been keeping a close eye on her since they got on the plane to fly home. Maybe it was her mothering instinct kicking into over drive. She watched Emily for a moment. Her dark hair was hanging down, hiding her face from JJ's view. JJ mused that normally after a case like this Emily would tie her hair back. But this wasn't like any other case. Sure, they'd all been in danger plenty of times before. Emily had definitely been hurt in the line of cases before. But it wasn't like this. JJ hadn't been at the base they'd set up outside the compound when Cyrus had beaten the daylights out of Emily, she'd been dealing with the media nightmare of the report of an FBI agent being in the compound. One FBI agent. But the boys had been shaken up. Who could tell if it was because they couldn't do anything but listen, or if it had actually been that bad? But the way Morgan had talked about it she'd half expected Em to come out of there with broken bones and missing teeth and a lot more blood. Not that the injuries that she came off that compound with were anything to scoff at. Then again, JJ remembered when Reid had been taken Tobais Hankle, but that had been different too; they had been able to see him, know what was happening to him. The sense of helplessness was still there, but they had only been able to hear Emily and Cyrus.

Emily had quietly confessed as JJ sat with her after she and Reid had let go of their embrace when he and Morgan had come out of the flames and smoke that his experience with Hankle was why she'd given herself up to Cyrus. "I told him it was me," She'd said. "I know that physically he could survive a beating. But mentally," she'd stopped and shaken her head lightly, swallowed thickly. "If he started using Dilauded again" she trailed off and then looked JJ in the eye. "He'll have to live with a little guilt, I'll help him get over it, but at least he's alive." JJ just squeezed her hand supportively and told her it was ok. That was the only time after she hugged Reid that the emotions had gotten the better of her. She had compartmentalized it all behind her walls to make the whole thing easier. Neither Emily or the guys could look each other in the eye at first, when it was all over. Her, because she knew they'd heard what Cyrus had done to her. Shame at her own perceived weakness; not being able to fight back, not able to think of a way out of it. Them because they'd heard her. Some weird combination of respect for her sense of shame and their own guilt. Morgan had gone with Reid and they'd gotten checked out by the paramedics. Rossi and Hotch both stopped by to check in, gave her honest but generic 'glad you're ok' sentiments. But the women were left to be the strong ones again. So, JJ had sat with her as the paramedics treated and cataloged the bruises and cuts. JJ would never tell Emily, but she had listened to the recording of Cyrus beating her. She'd stayed on the phone with Garcia while she transcribed it for the case file per FBI requirements, for moral support. She'd let Emily have her support as long as she needed it and would accept it without it being tainted by her own shame./p  
JJ heard Emily wince as she sighed heavily through her nose, probably irritating one of the injuries to her torso she thought, as she leaned heavily against the table. By some miracle, none of Cyrus's blows had hit her nose and broken it. He'd certainly been hitting her hard enough that it would have broken and that would have been a mess. The mass of bruises to her face and head were probably why she didn't have her hair up, JJ mused, it would have to be pretty tender still. "Hey," she said quietly, announcing her presence. "How are you doing?"

Emily shrugged, a little stiff, but always the warrior woman she replied, "I'll live." It was one of her standards at times like these, when she was injured. I'll be ok, is what it more or less boiled down to, it never addressed her current state because it didn't matter how she was then, she'd be ok later./p  
Her time on the compound was firmly tucked away and Emily wasn't going to unpack it now. It would come out eventually, JJ knew from experience on past cases that sometimes it would become too much even for Emily Prentiss to handle and keep neatly compartmentalized. But JJ knew it wasn't going to be her that would be there when Emily unpacked it all this time. "Are you going to call her?" she asked the quiet brunette, motioning to the phone in her hand. The question hung in between them for a long moment and Emily just looked down at her phone. "It's been three days; she must be pretty worried by now. The case was kind of all over the news. You should let her know you're ok. Mostly," she amended playfully in an attempt to lighten the heavy air between them as her friend turned her head towards her and she caught sight of her injured face.

"She doesn't know that was us," Emily told her, flashing an unamused look at the mention of her injuries but otherwise ignoring the remark.

"You didn't tell her that you were going into a separatist cult to investigate child sexual assault?" JJ couldn't help the shock that leaked into her voice. Emily shrugged again. "I had to give press conferences," she pointed out to her. "I'm sure they showed them here too with the news reports."

"She didn't know it was us," Emily corrected, tilting her head and scuffing her foot on the carpet.

"How did you explain not being able to contact her?" JJ asked, letting the topic drop for now.

"I just told her that it was a sensitive case and I would call her when I could." Emily explained. JJ nodded, understanding that it wasn't a lie exactly. She would have had a reason. "You might as well be a profiler," Emily rolled her eyes. JJ had the grace to blush lightly at being caught profiling her coworker and friend and offered a quiet apology. "She just dealt with a case with a pedophile who killed his victims and took steps," she emphasized the word, in a way begging JJ to understand what she was saying so she wouldn't have to explain. Child cases were hard for JJ, especially now that she was pregnant and she didn't need the details, "when he disposed of the bodies to avoid their identification and connecting them to him. It was hard for her and we went in to that compound to investigate child sex abuse. I didn't want her thinking about that case anymore than she had to."  
JJ sighed, watching her friend rub her hand across her forehead. "I get it," she told her. And she did. She understood the honest omission to keep a loved one from worrying or suffering. But what, now, had JJ's brain working was why Emily "forward, flirty, and hates to admit it but a total romantic" Prentiss was hesitating to call the woman that made her weak in the knees and had her heart all aflutter. It wasn't because she was wounded, Emily wore her bruises and scrapes and scars like badges outside of work. She doubted it would be shame at her weakness the same way it was with the guys. They'd been together long enough that JJ knew she must know what Emily went through on some cases, the emotional toll it took on her. Whatever the reason Emily seemed to be working through it, she fiddled with her phone again. "Call her Emily," JJ told her firmly. Emily nodded but worried her lower lip between her teeth. "Give her a head's up about all this," she motioned vaguely at the area on her face where Emily's was bruised. It was easier for both of them to joke about the injuries right now. The emotions were still too raw. If she tried to address it right now, she was sure that she would breakdown and Emily would end up holding and comforting her. It would just shut Emily down further. Still, she reached out and squeezed her arm, gave her a tight-lipped but genuine smile. "I'm really glad that you're ok."/p  
Emily tilted her head and grinned nonchalantly at her in a way she was sure made her girlfriend turn to mush and butterflies inside. "Thank you. Me too," she replied and JJ let her hand slide down to join Emily's and squeezed again, letting her know how sincere she was and Emily squeezed back, meeting her eyes.

"Call her, or I will," JJ threatened.

"I will," Emily promised.


End file.
